Demise of Christmas telly as millions opt to switch off
CHRISTMAS Day saw the lowest TV ratings since records began, figures showed yesterday.
The number of Britons gathered to watch festive favourites has halved compared to 30 years ago.
The most-watched programme this year was Call The Midwife on BBC1, with an audience of 8.7 million.
But this is half a million below the 9.2 million who saw the period drama in 2016 – the previously held record for the lowest ratings for a mostwatched show.
Second place this year was Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show with 7.6 million and the Strictly Come Dancing special came third on 7.5 million.
It means TV audiences for the most-watched show on the big day have dropped by 31 per cent this decade and 40 per cent since 2000.
But the Queen’s festive message picked up an audience of 5.2 million on BBC1 and another 1.1 million over on ITV, giving it a 6.3 million total.
However, the overall viewing decline is even steeper when comparing 2018 with 1998 (down 42 per cent) and 1988 (down 52 per cent).
The full ratings for 2018 published by researchers Barb include people who recorded a broadcast and watched it up to seven days later.
Comparable figures for TV audiences date back to 1981. They show that Christmas Day audiences remained broadly steady through the 1980s and much of the 1990s, before starting a downward trend.
Soap operas have seen a particularly steep decline. Coronation Street enjoyed 14.6 million viewers for its festive episode in 2000, and managed 10.8 million in 2011.
But in 2018 only 6.7 million watched the offering.
And EastEnders has seen its Christmas Day audience slump from the likes of 14.4 million as recently as 2007 to only 6.5 million last year watching the saga in Walford.
Barb’s figures also reveal that the first episode of the BBC’s Poirot adaptation The ABC Murders enjoyed a TV audience of 7.6 million, making it the most-watched programme on Boxing Day.
It was also the second mostwatched programme of Christmas week. Here are the top 10 biggest TV audiences of Christmas week:
1. Call The Midwife (Christmas Day, BBC1), 8.7 million
2. The ABC Murders (Boxing Day, BBC1), 7.6 million
3. Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show (Christmas Day, BBC1), 7.6 million
4. Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (Christmas Day, BBC1), 7.5 million
5. Coronation Street (7.30pm December 28, ITV), 7.5 million
6. Coronation Street (8.30pm December 28, ITV), 7.4 million
7. Coronation Street (Christmas Eve, ITV), 7 million
8. Zog (Christmas Day, BBC1), 6.9 million
9. Coronation Street (Boxing Day, ITV), 6.9 million
10. Mrs Brown’s Boys (Christmas Day, BBC1), 6.7 million
Records of biggest audiences for a single programme or film on Christmas Day started in 1981. The chart is based on the highest-rated instance of a programme and does not include repeats. This rules out the late-night episode of EastEnders on Christmas Day 1986, sometimes quoted as having an audience of 30 million plus.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark on ITV had 19.3 million viewers in 1984, 20.8 million watched Just Good Friends on BBC1 in 1986. Only Fools And Horses peaked in 1996 and 2001 with audience of 21.3 million. EastEnders recorded the highest recent rating with 12.6 million in 2010.